Stocks: Game On

It has been since March that I mentioned anything about stocks. At that time I had gotten worked over pretty good. My account was down about $500 from my initial $5000 starting point. I was thinking that maybe the stock market just isn't the place for me. Maybe it is a system of patterns that I just won't be able to get my head around.

VDSI was the last stock I traded at that point, stupidly riding it up, then back down. Near the end of April I decided to try again with some HDNG and VDSI. Within a few days HDNG dropped 10% so I dumped it. That hurt pretty good, but VDSI decided to start treating me nicely. I tried some DLB, quickly throwing away about $150, but VDSI was still going up. By July 30 the market as a whole was looking flakey again, but finally selling VDSI got me over $400 almost erasing all the bad decisions I'd made so far.

I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of it. July 31 I picked up GME (GameStop hehe) as it bounced off it's 50 dma for $40.72, it's over $55.00 as of today. I've been eyeing NTDOY.PK (nintendo duh) for a while, and a big volume bounce off it's 50 dma on August 10 tells me to pick it up on the 13th, so I did for $55.00 (In reality buying this stock is probably not that easy, since it is on a forign exchange). Nintendo is up above $60 these days.

Lastly, ONXX is the most beautiful chart pattern I've dealt with so far. From June 5 to Aug 9 is a very good, long, tight cup pattern. Aug 9 to Aug 24 is a very good handle. Aug 10 it breaks out on 4x average volume. I bought on Aug 30 at $38.50, and look at it go today.

A weather eye

Pirates of the Burning Sea (High Hopes):

About 20 years ago there was a game called Pirates! (re-made more recently) that I played countless hours of. Nothing like blowin' holes in your adversaries ship. Capture, or sink her. Basically you'd sail around the caribbean fighting for ships, gold, and the governor's daughter.

Lately I've been playing a lot of Port Royale, which is very similar to Pirates! with some added features. You can fight with all of the ships in your convoy not just the flagship. You can produce goods to sell. You can have multiple convoys. You can setup trade routes that your convoy will automatically follow, buying and selling whatever you set it to.

In these games the big thing missing is fighting alongside a friend. Pirates of the Burning Sea will finally correct this long standing problem. It's much like Port Royale, except with lots of people.

Today (being talk like a pirate day) was supposed to have seen some big announcements out of Flying Labs Software (FLS). So far all we've heard that the pre-order will be available on Oct. 23rd and the contents of said pre-order. Me and many others expected more...much more. Ah well, I guess the day isn't over yet, so they could redeem themselves before midnight.

ps. Hopin' yer "talk like a pirate day" was better'n swabbin' ta poopdeck.

Next game on my list

Fury (crossing fingers):

My first MMO was DAOC. I was pulled from counter-strike into camelot with the promise of this totally revolutionary PvP area where your entire realm would fight with each of the other two realms. The mere thought made me weak in the knees. I was smitten. I never got to play that part though (even after 6 months of trying to get there). Heart-broken. :(

There have been a few other games that I've tried the PvP in and none of them have been that solid. None had anything resembling tactics or strategy. It's always a matter of being the right level with uber equipment (and the overpowerd class of the month).

Fury is just the PvP part without the suck (no grinding to the right level). Right now I see this as counter-strike with magic and swords.

There will be a free-to-play option, or a subscription option (provides things like teleporting to towns and stuff like that). This should be good for pulling in and keeping a good population in game.

At this point I had originally planned to mention all the complaints about the games performance, how that will affect launch, and critical mass of players, and a suggestion to delay the game a bit. That's what I had written yesterday with the intent of posting it today. This morning that changed.

In my email this morning was the latest newsletter from Auran (the people making fury). Please read it if you've had the same concerns I've been hearing about. In summary they say, "We know of performance problems, they are being worked on. The client at launch will be much improved and we're goin to let you try the client as we develop it. Launch date is being delayed, we'll let you know." That is all good news to me.

No one remembers a delayed launch, but everyone remembers a botched one, this is true in all software development.

Coming Games

In my last post I mentioned some games coming out soon that I've been keeping an eye on. Some are getting pretty close and there have been rumblings from beta participants that are forming up. I'll try to explain a little about the basic concept of the game, but to learn more you could always check out their websites.

Tabula Rasa (forget it):
This is touted as an MMOFPS. If you have visions of planetside dancing in your head I think you've got the right idea. Except, I don't think there are any vehicles (flying was my favorite part of planetside), and it isn't in FIRST PERSON! I didn't realize that last part until a week ago. What kind of FPS is not in FP?!? The ducking and covering part appears broken in beta, but that kind of thing can be fixed, unless you can't see through your characters own eyes to know if you have line of sight with your target or not (ie. not in first person). So at this point it sounds a lot like SWG (without the good crafting). Thanks, but no thanks.

Huxley (holding pattern):Also an MMOFPS, but I still think that this one is in first person. We don't hear much about this game, it starts beta today, or when it might launch. So, we'll just set awhile and see.